


Windflower (Pippin)

by kathkin



Series: A Few Notes in the Song of Creation (a Lord of the Rings Dæmon AU) [1]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 16:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14752550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathkin/pseuds/kathkin
Summary: Now Merry was himself again, entirely himself, that nagging feeling that something about Pippin had changed wasn't going away as he’d expected.In the Houses of Healing, Merry has a realisation.





	Windflower (Pippin)

**Author's Note:**

> a) Wikipedia on [dæmons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A6mon_\(His_Dark_Materials\)).
> 
> b) [Ground rules for this AU](http://penny-anna.tumblr.com/post/174266827343/ground-rules-for-d%C3%A6mon-au).
> 
> c) See end notes for dæmon key!

There _was_ something different about Pippin.

Merry had seen it straight away, but he’d thought he just wasn’t thinking clearly – he hadn’t been thinking clearly. Now he was himself again, entirely himself, that nagging feeling that something had changed wasn't going away as he’d expected.

They’d been sitting together in the house of healing for the past hour, smoking and eating and talking about the food in Minas Tirith and the food in Rohan and the relative merits of each, idle subjects to keep their minds off more disturbing things, and still he couldn’t place what was different.

As he studied Pippin, trying to work it out, Merry’s hand strayed yet again to Grumpy. She lay beside him, exhausted, wrung out like a wet cloth, but no longer listless and cold as she had been. At his touch she twitched her ears.

Pippin was perched on the edge of his bed, swinging his legs, looking for all the world just as he had when they parted, if perhaps a little thinner. It was strange to see him in livery, but that wasn’t it. There was something else. Something deeper.

“Though I suppose I shouldn’t complain _too_ much, there being a war on and all,” said Pippin. “Everyone here’s been very friendly. Did I tell you, they think I’m the prince of the Shire?” Pippin laughed to himself at the thought.

It was then that, all at once, it hit him. All the while they’d been talking, Pippin’s Windflower hadn’t changed her shape. Not once.

Pippin had been twelve or so, when he’d realised for the first time that Windflower would settle one day. He’d folded his arms and stuck out his chin and said, in the same earnest, no-nonsense tone his mother used to tell him to eat his vegetables, “we’re not going to.”

And of course everyone had laughed. They’d told him he’d come around to the idea and when he said he wouldn’t, they’d said, “tough, for you shall have to do it sooner or later.”

“Everyone does it, Pip,” Merry had told him later. “It’s the way the world is.”

“Then I shall be the first not to.”

At the time Merry had rolled his eyes, but over the years, he had almost started to believe it.

Most hobbits had settled by the time they were Pippin’s age. Grumpy had settled before Merry’s twenty-fifth birthday. Windflower hadn’t even begun to slow down. She flashed through forms as fast as Pippin talked, which was very fast indeed. The only time Merry had known her hold a shape as long as this was when Pippin was asleep.

“What?” said Pippin, for Merry had been staring. Beside him Grumpy had raised her head, her ears pricked up.

Windflower had been fluttering about the window, but she came now to rest on Pippin’s shoulder. She was shaped like a blue tit, which suited her very nicely. Small, and sweet, and brightly-coloured.

“Did you,” said Merry, “did you _settle_?”

“Ah.” Pippin looked at his lap. “I was wondering when you’d notice.”

“What?” said Merry. “When? How?”

“A few days ago, I think,” said Pippin. “I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean, you’re not sure?” said Merry.

“Well, I’ve been very busy,” Pippin said. “I realised a few nights ago.”

“You _realised_ – you don’t mean to say,” aid Merry in growing horror, “you don’t mean to say – you _missed your own settling_?”

“When you put it like that it sounds very odd,” said Pippin.

“How could you miss it?” said Merry. Though now that he thought of it, perhaps it was one of those things that was easier done than said. He’d known the moment Grumpy had settled, of course he had, but the final change hadn’t felt different from any other. If he’d been distracted enough – perhaps they _could_ have missed it. “You missed it,” he said, the words fully sinking only as he spoke them. “I missed it.”

“To tell you the truth, I think you’re the first person to notice,” said Pippin. “A lot’s happened,” he added weakly.

It wasn’t just that Windflower had settled. There was a look in Pippin’s eyes that Merry hadn’t seen before, and didn’t want to see. It was as if he’d aged years in the span of a few days. He was older. They were both older.

“Anyhow, it’s about time, isn’t it?” said Pippin.

Merry would get the full story out of him later. For now, he did the only thing he could think to do. He grabbed Pippin and hauled him into a fierce embrace. “How dare you,” he said shakily. “How _dare_ you.”

“Don’t start blubbing on me,” said Pippin. “I’m _fine_.” Leaving her perch, Windflower fluttered down to murmur in Grumpy’s pointed ear.

“We’ll celebrate later,” said Merry, blinking away tears.

“When all of this is over,” Pippin agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> Dæmons in this fic:
> 
>  **Merry and Celandine ("Grumpy"):** [red fox.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fox_-_British_Wildlife_Centre_\(17429406401\).jpg)  
>  **Pippin and Windflower:** newly settled [blue tit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_blue_tit#/media/File:Eurasian_blue_tit_Lancashire.jpg).


End file.
